Vegetable gardening is nutritious in both body and mind. It’s exciting to watch a little seed turn into a sprout, then into a small plant, and eventually, into a big ole squash plant that’s bursting with bright yellow gourds and giant green leaves. Digging your hands into cool soil is meditative. Smelling the basil and dill is heavenly. And you don’t have to live on a country estate to grow your own food at home, either.
City dwellers can plant vegetables in patio container gardens. In cold climates, you can start a small garden indoors or even grow vegetables outdoors most of the year if you have a greenhouse.
When it comes to planning a backyard vegetable garden, ideas are easy to come by. There are plenty of pictures of elaborate gardens with rows of sun-ripened tomatoes, entire sections devoted solely to peas, raised beds for root vegetables, and, of course, a fountain and seating area. We don’t all have gigantic yards, though. As nice as it would be to have row after row of heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, it’s just not realistic when your backyard garden is a two-foot by four-foot rectangle between your driveway and the foundation of your house.
The thing is, you can create a really nice garden in that small rectangle of space. It’s a simple matter of timing, design, and plant selection. But if you have a large backyard, even better!
In the articles below, we dive into everything you need to know about vegetable gardening. You can learn even more in our How to Grow a Vegetable Garden: 10 Things Every Gardener Needs to Know Before Starting a Food Garden freebie. Enjoy!
Planting zone 9 and higher is hot. For gardeners, that means a long growing season. In fact, if you plan it right, you could grow vegetables almost all year long! That seems alright by me! As any gardener knows, though, some vegetables are a bit “particular” about where, when, and how they grow. Then there are those vegetables for hot, dry climates that don’t need much more from you than a hand getting into the ground.
The first Saturday in May is a special day for nature-loving gardeners. Since 2007, the day has been celebrated as World Naked Gardening Day. The holiday itself began in 2005, but for those first two years, the day was celebrated in September. And in spots like New Zealand, the date shifted to accommodate the season. […]
Hey there, fellow kitchen adventurers! Today, let’s dive into the aromatic world of homemade onion powder – that humble yet mighty ingredient that can transform a dish from bland to grand in a sprinkle! Let’s face it, onions are the unsung heroes of the kitchen. But when you’re in a rush or just want to […]
Editor’s note: This list of the best strawberries to grow in your garden is updated annually, based on ratings from the Burpee website. With most of our “best of” lists, there are some changes from year to year. Some fruits or vegetables move up or down in ratings, and some varieties lose their spot in the list altogether. Surprisingly, […]
Mention heirloom vegetable plants and immediately we think of rich tomatoes, sweet corn, or bright purple carrots. The other thing that comes to mind is a garden full of vegetables that get ruined by disease or eaten by bugs or that fail to thrive because they have such specific growing needs.
When we bought our house, my favorite thing in the backyard was the hundred-year-old Ash tree smack dab in the center of the yard. She was statuesque, gorgeous, sturdy, and shadier than a Real Housewife at a Reunion Show Special.
As a kid, my least favorite flower was the marigold. Companion plants, pollinators, and wondering how the heck to keep rabbits out of my garden was still years away. Marigolds, on the other hand, were right there in front of me. So was the bee that stung me, along with a few of his fellow bees gathering pollen from the flowers. In my eight-year-old mind it was all connected: marigolds attract bees, bees sting you, therefore, marigolds were the worst flower ever.
If time machines were a thing, you could go back to a classic 1972 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial, where in the commercial, a man trips and falls, accidentally dipping his chocolate bar into a jar of peanut butter that a boy is eating from. After the initial disappointment, they both discover that chocolate and peanut butter are “two great tastes that taste great together.” You can’t plant Reese’s Cups, but if you want two garden plants that taste great together, try basil and tomato companion planting. It’s a Caprese salad right in your garden!
Editor’s note: This is our annually updated list of the best blueberries to grow, based on ratings from the Burpee website. Since last year, we’ve made some changes to reflect new ratings and reviews. Some blueberries have moved up in the ratings, some have moved down, and a few are holding steady. A few blueberries […]
Is there any flower more lovely than the sunflower? Famous post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh painted a series of sunflower canvases. It appears on the state flag of Kansas. There’s even a National Sunflower Association, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the agricultural importance of these flowers.
